Sensocure has received BIA funding from the Research Council of Norway.

Through the User-driven Innovation Arena (BIA), the Research Council of Norway funds projects aimed at creating high value both for the participating companies and for society. Sensocure was one of the applicants for the fall call, and has been successful with its application.

The BioAlert project aims to develop a completely new and unique product by Sensocure. BioAlert will be a handheld instrument that can easily measure the condition of an organ and its parts. A surgeon will be able to use this during an operation on a diseased organ to better assess which parts of the organ should be removed and which part will remain healthy.

Risky Surgery

Abdominal surgeries constitute a significant portion of surgical procedures worldwide and are often risky surgeries on very ill patients. Serious surgical procedures can lead to severe complications or even loss of life post-surgery. A major cause of complications after such surgery is the lack of good tools to assess the condition of the intestines and other organs during the operation, and to check if the surgery is adequate.

For example, in cases of critically low blood supply to the intestines, it can be difficult to determine which part of the intestine should be removed and which parts will recover and therefore should not be removed. With the current method, the accuracy is only slightly above 50%. Therefore, necrotic intestine is removed, the patient is placed in the intensive care unit, and re-operation is performed after 1-3 days to remove any remaining necrotic intestine. This can lead to serious complications such as sepsis and multiple organ failure with high mortality rates.

Another example is found in cancer surgeries involving the pancreas and intestines. Anastomosis (joining of intestine to intestine or intestine to organ) may be leaky, causing intestinal fluid leakage into the abdominal cavity. Such leakage can lead to severe peritonitis, sepsis, and death. With BioAlert, it can be determined during the operation if the surgery is adequate.

"There is a great need for new methods and tools to ensure the quality of surgery and to avoid the development of serious complications. Sensocure is developing BioAlert so that definitive surgery can be performed in the first intervention. In addition, BioAlert can also be used to assess the condition of organs to be transplanted," says Technical Director Stein Ivar Hansen at Sensocure.

Berit Brosvik, Head of Product Development at Sensocure, comments on the BIA support: "It is a quality stamp to receive BIA support. We look forward to working on this project and have high expectations for our product."

Sensocure has a close collaboration with Oslo University Hospital in this project.